Posts

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A union to reframe the conflict

I'm sitting in the dust at the door of the warehouse loading dock in which I work, feet dangling outside, steep sick of my week, watching backyard full of cigarette butts and plastic pieces flying in the wind and that will end up in water, somewhere, to reduce our life expectancy to support a self-destructive system. I took me a while only break this afternoon. To be honest, I did not often takes; I prefer to take an hour rather than half an hour for dinner or go 10 minutes before the end of the story day to arrive early at home, but I'm in there ... tabarnaque, and there I had a little breakdown.

What happened ? What pisses me off ? Hmm ... it would be complicated to simply explain, but if I wanted to try to summarize the, I would say that I can see over the lack of culture of solidarity and democracy of our society is that my job (and almost all other, even those that are unionized by "traditional" unions), it's a pain in the ass constant ! It is an endless series of problems that never manages to settle for the simple reason that we can not think outside the box ! I look forward to the one returned in the head once and for all, everyone together : it absolutely useless to try to improve our working conditions if not take control of the company to complete, and that, almost nobody, even traditional unions, seems to understand !

However, for someone who, like me, constantly working in direct democracy outside his job and who knows how that changes the whole way to settle (or rather avoid) all conflicts that cause hierarchy, it is a simple fact : As long we're going to struggle to increase our power against the boss (or in the form, but let's focus on the boss today) rather than to abolish, we will continually trying to divide us !

What I mean by that ? I give you two reasons why I went outside ventilate, you've probably seen you so your job, and you will understand everything :

 

The conflict overtime


In my work that works very seasonally, my boss used until recently the operation of the labor code called "the spread of hours" of paying all their employees 40 hours per week, they have worked 15 or 50, in order to, they said, "They ensure a steady income", then, to accumulate their extra time and pay them single hourly rate (rather than rate 1.5) six months or paid vacation. Without wishing to dwell on the details, this maneuver I found unlawful because the company I work for meet any of the criteria necessary to do, meant that, on the 100 at 200 hours of overtime they accumulated individually by six months, we had the equivalent of flying 50 at 100 working hours, either 750 at 2500 $ each !

When I started this fight alone, not having had the time to organize my colleagues because of a time constraint, their lack of awareness of the need to take control of the company is that they have quickly leveled in two positions that clash and there are still : The first, adopted primarily by young people - and strongly influenced by the intervention of Boss while on holiday - is that if we go ahead with the idea of ​​forcing the company to meet labor standards, it will hire additional staff to avoid having to pay us extra time to rate 1.5 and short, we can do more overtime, some need to get to the end. It is better, according to these colleagues-there anyway, work overtime single rate than not do at all (What a wage increase could very well do the job too but ... one thing at a time).

The other position, adopted mainly by fathers better paid and busier than they, is applauding the idea that despite the loss of potential earnings that decreased our hours may incur, we will finally be able to live a little and take care of our families, and that's exactly what everyone is almost needed.

But there, is shit ! Everyone is divided ! And while the two side clash and, if not think outside the context in which "was boss" and where "employees do not control the company from A to Z", absolutely right, I know very well (and I try to make them understand) that if we, the workers, all decisions were taken together, sans boss, we would not even have this debate here insolvent !

Think about it : Already, we would have much more income to the base because we would have no astronomical salaries bosses pay, Moreover, one could also ourselves reach an agreement that ensures that those who want to work more could do so and those who want to work less could do it too. It is even us who would control how many employees we engage or not ! It would fully, control on overtime, and fathers can see their children and spouse-es while young could work like crazy and buy a house, pay for their education or making the rounds of all the festivals in Quebec if it enchants. It sounds like you are not a solution for everyone that ?!?

But no ... as not take power, neither option is currently good for everyone, and during that time, everyone pisses, divides itself, and my boss continue to roll with the chariots 100 000 $ we pay them.

The "Yes-mans» against the "Slackers»


Because there is only one person (myself) in the warehouse of a company in which he could easily have three, the company's warehouse for which I work is continuously the position neck, that is to say one in which he clearly lacks staff, forcing everyone to regularly interrupt his work to come give me a hand even if they themselves are also kept busy. Is repeated every day, nonstop, and for months : you have to hire one more person in the warehouse because I always have to run and cut corners to reach the end of the day and it generates lots of errors and problems that make life miserable for everyone, except my boss, of course.

Here again, only because we are trying to solve the problem other than taking control of the company from A to Z, two opposing views, divide us, and make the unbearable work environment : The first is that, while actively asking our employers to hire an additional person until they find (but they do not because they have a salary of more pay), one must "work as a team and help each other", and so, when a position is overwhelmed, we must not abandon our or our colleague(s) only(s) and leave our work at the end of the day without giving him a hand. Let's, it's a great mentality, solidarity ! But as part of a job in a workplace where there is no 100 % power, it is rather a mentality yes-man or larbin. This is nothing more than to kiss his slavery to want to be exploited more for the same salary in exchange for "pride in being hard-working guy", and it is a hosts of shit mentality in that context !

In the reverse, the second (very individualistic, many corporatist unions adopt, and that costs a fortune grievances) is that we should not play the game bosses by helping each other or by working harder if the problem is, originally, that lack of staff, because no matter how much work we will do, we will earn the same salary, and short, the more we will work, the more you will actually use, So we stick to our job and it ends there. I would call this mentality then that of slacker. But the problem with it, This is what must be realistic and realize that, as it is still capitalism that I know, the job must be done a day or another if we want the company continues to roll and generate income, and that if we simply make the minimum all the time, all the money, beautiful condition, holiday weeks, etc, we could go looking through our unionism, where he lost the !

Put another way, while being slackers, we diminish our hourly output, so, even if we fight fiercely for our excellent wages by unions, we will need to work more hours to get to finally consecrate our camp with us at the end of the day, or more years before they can finally take our retraire, and more, allowed our single-es overworked colleagues while you listen to YouTube videos rather than going to help or go home, because we want to do our 40h, but by doing as little as possible.

It, when it is YOU poor overloaded moron for six months, I can tell ... it makes you want to freak as I am trying to do then dret ! Short, in a hierarchical framework, this shit is as much a mindset as that of yes-mans, at the end.

So if we look at it from afar, without considering the option to take full control of the company and dismiss boss, we realize that on the one hand, work hard is not good, and secondly, do not work hard either, this is not good, and short, no matter what we do, c'est-à-dire qu'on soit of a extreme to the other, or even in the center, was ALWAYS a mentality of shit. This is ridiculous eh ?

Well that's why he must stop fooling around and divide between yes-mans and the slackers, and only take total control of the site to appropriate 100% revenues (or rather 100% the power to appropriate the). It should blow up in our faces it seems : The day the money that wins or loses our workplace will be ours, nobody will be exploited, but especially, nobody will have the incentives to do as little as possible and will put his colleagues in trouble by doing. And if you look even further, the day when all the whole economy will be finally controlled by workers, and collectivized, we will not even have to give trouble to compete and to self-operate to prevent competitors make us close.

 

Conclusion


As my two examples show, how we see the problems at work (and society, as well), it is often in "framing" things within a necessarily hierarchical world, and it limits our ability to see the problem itself well ... it is often PRECISELY hierarchy. It is important to take it back there! You really think that a horizontal dynamic, direct democracy, would be, and what would change in our close relations, our block, our neighborhood, our workplace, our region, and the relationship between all the different parts of the world, if not, we always turn around in circles, repeating endlessly the same mistakes and trying the same loop "solutions".

We need to get into the habit, the reflex, think about it every day, in every conflict, in each issue that involves somewhere people experiencing hierarchy, and I swear that we will soon collectively understand this analogy a bit simplistic here, I use all the time, but that sums up the stuff anyway, which is that "while the reformists are wondering whether to use a large low-flow pipe or a small broadband pipe to fill the pool leaking, the anticapitalist, we, proposed to plug the leak !»

it plugs, this leak out !

 

X377131

 

*The absence of constant feminine endings is not an error or failure; rather it reflects the sad reality that there is no woman in my workplace now, and it is not a coincidence, but it will be the subject of another text.

 

Photo credit: led-lighting-product

Radicalization of the strike on May 1 2015 !

To read this article in English, click here.

A specter is haunting Quebec. this spectrum, it is the general strike. Since that time 2012, our elites know that the working class, the students, and all those that injustice and repression are not indifferent yet, may take to the streets and impose their legitimacy facing the State. But despite this dread, the apostles of capitalism, and particularly his liberal vision, cannot help but wage an open war against everything that is not a commodity, against anything that is not financially valuable. From budget cuts to police over-arming, from our underpaid jobs to public insults against the poor and the exploited, everything leads us to believe that Quebec has been blighted by unbridled capitalism. This neo-liberal paradise, protected by the state and its henchmen, ruin our daily life and that of our loved ones, willfully tramples on the remnants of our freedom, spits in the faces of the most destitute and of a misery that he himself has engendered. We long ago stopped believing in the regulatory capacity of this system. By self-destructing, he will lead us all simultaneously in his wake. Every day we experience new reminders of this planned failure: environmental disasters, rising inequalities, deterioration of working conditions, institutional racism, systemic corruption of our political system, harassment of women in their workplaces or at university ... In general, these are all forms of dominations that are increasing dangerously, pushing the exploited and dominated of our society to their limits, to install our elites on a pedestal far too comfortable.

This is why we call the rebels to the insurgency. We hope this spring will see all the rabid ones, all those who dislike this system, in the streets and in action. Because apathy is not for us, we strongly believe in our common ability to create a better world. Beyond a simple one-off fight against austerity, we see in the distance the premises of a social war, including the strike of 2012 was just the beginning. Successive and repetitive governments, from right to left, have been trying for too long to impose on us their deadly conception of the economy, and more broadly from society. A single day of strike is not enough to roll back a government that protects the financial interests of the dominant. We believe that a global revolt of the whole of society must emerge this spring. This revolt must take place on the long term : in Quebec as in Europe, too many examples of recent social movements have proven the uselessness of ad hoc actions against governments now accustomed and prepared for social discontent.

Against capitalism and liberalism, we reaffirm our right to manage our own lives, whether or not it suits those who lead us. Our daily life is ours, our cities are ours. We firmly believe that capitalism must be banned from Quebec. For that, we will always show solidarity with those who fight, but forever unsympathetic in the eyes of the resigned and prostrate. We will be alongside workers and students in struggle, and we will oppose police brutality with proletarian solidarity. In the street, in the workplace and study, in our neighborhoods, we are here to support and help you.

Let’s not be afraid of our utopias!

Dare to fight to overthrow the established order!

founding meeting of the ISTC-IWW Sherbrooke

To read this article in English, click here. 10306167_1819959058228201_421577575073620815_n

Section SITT-IWW Sherbrooke goes ahead and founded his local! We will hold a founding meeting on Thursday 26 March, the 187 Laurier, Alphonse Desjardins room, from 19 hours.

The objective of this meeting is to inform the SITT-IWW in Sherbrooke, de formaliser la création de notre branche (adoption des règlements du syndicat, élections), d’annoncer et de définir nos actions futures, et bien entendu de recruter tout-e nouveau ou nouvelle membre intéressé-e à se joindre au combat!

Le SITT-IWW est un syndicat inclusif, who, par le réseautage et la solidarité, souhaite créer un véritable réseau de travailleurs et de travailleuses capables de se défendre les un-e-s et les autres pour, ensuite, viser un meilleur contrôle de leur milieu de travail.

Que tu sois travailleur ou travailleuse, que tu sois étudiant-e ou bien chômeur, chômeuse, viens nous rencontrer le jeudi 26 March!

Solidarity!

La section locale de Sherbrooke du SITT-IWW.

Call for strike on May 1 2015

A specter is haunting Quebec. this spectrum, it is the general strike. Since that time 2012, our elites know that the working class, the students, and all those that injustice and repression are not indifferent yet, may take to the streets and impose their legitimacy facing the State. But despite this dread, the apostles of capitalism, and particularly his liberal vision, cannot help but wage an open war against everything that is not a commodity, against anything that is not financially valuable. From budget cuts to police over-arming, from our underpaid jobs to public insults against the poor and the exploited, everything leads us to believe that Quebec has been blighted by unbridled capitalism. This neo-liberal paradise, protected by the state and its henchmen, ruin our daily life and that of our loved ones, willfully tramples on the remnants of our freedom, spits in the faces of the most destitute and of a misery that he himself has engendered. We long ago stopped believing in the regulatory capacity of this system. By self-destructing, he will lead us all simultaneously in his wake. Every day we experience new reminders of this planned failure: environmental disasters, rising inequalities, deterioration of working conditions, institutional racism, systemic corruption of our political system, harassment of women in their workplaces or at university ... In general, these are all forms of dominations that are increasing dangerously, pushing the exploited and dominated of our society to their limits, to install our elites on a pedestal far too comfortable.

This is why we call the rebels to the insurgency. We hope this spring will see all the rabid ones, all those who dislike this system, in the streets and in action. Because apathy is not for us, we strongly believe in our common ability to create a better world. Beyond a simple one-off fight against austerity, we see in the distance the premises of a social war, including the strike of 2012 was just the beginning. Successive and repetitive governments, from right to left, have been trying for too long to impose on us their deadly conception of the economy, and more broadly from society. A single day of strike is not enough to roll back a government that protects the financial interests of the dominant. We believe that a global revolt of the whole of society must emerge this spring. This revolt must take place on the long term : in Quebec as in Europe, too many examples of recent social movements have proven the uselessness of ad hoc actions against governments now accustomed and prepared for social discontent.

Against capitalism and liberalism, we reaffirm our right to manage our own lives, whether or not it suits those who lead us. Our daily life is ours, our cities are ours. We firmly believe that capitalism must be banned from Quebec. For that, we will always show solidarity with those who fight, but forever unsympathetic in the eyes of the resigned and prostrate. We will be alongside workers and students in struggle, and we will oppose police brutality with proletarian solidarity. In the street, in the workplace and study, in our neighborhoods, we are here to support and help you.

Let’s not be afraid of our utopias.

Dare to fight to overthrow the established order.

15$ the minimum time to arrive !

To read this article in English, click here.

L’État et son allié le patronat veulent garder les travailleurs et travailleuses dans la pauvreté en les maintenant au salaire minimum. Le nombre de ménages utilisant plus de 80% de leurs revenus pour le loyer a augmenté de 26% in 5 ans seulement, and more 220 000 ménages doivent consacrer au moins 50% de leur revenu pour se loger. Seulement à Montréal, it's over 365 300 people, dont 208 800 women, qui travaillent au salaire minimum. And, comble de l’insulte, lorsque ces travailleurs et travailleuses se retrouvent sur le chômage, quand ils et elles y ont droit, c’est à un maigre 55% de leur dernier revenu.

On pousse de plus en plus les travailleurs et travailleuses vers le salaire minimum, and, thereby, même, vers l’endettement. Le patronat veut amener les gens à travailler toujours plus, parfois à deux jobs, tout en payant les plus bas salaires possibles dans le but de maximiser ses profits.

Furthermore, cela a pour effet d’épuiser et d’isoler les travailleuses et travailleurs, tout en limitant leurs possibilités de se rebeller, tant ils et elles sont occupé-e-s à survivre et à joindre les deux bouts.

Les travailleurs et travailleuses au salaire minimum sont les plus vulnérables de la classe ouvrière.

Améliorer leurs conditions de vie immédiate, c’est aller contre les intérêts du patronat, et ainsi, faire un pas vers une société plus juste, une société anticapitaliste. Cela démontre aux travailleurs et travailleuses que des avancées peuvent être réalisées par la force de leur solidarité, de leur union. Car il ne faut pas oublier que « l’histoire de toute société jusqu’à nos jours, n’a été que l’histoire des lutte de classes » (Karl Marx).

Empêchons les travailleuses et travailleurs de crouler sous le poids du capitalisme, exigeons et luttons pour le salaire minimum à 15.00$ de l’heure pour tous et toutes!

Be delegated-e, it's not that collect contributions!

To read this article in english, click here.

Un article par DJ Alperovitz sur le rôle des délégué-e-s du SITT-IWW, paru originellement dans l’édition de décembre 2012 de l’Industrial Worker sous le titre Not just dues collectors.

Traduction libre par x 374166 de l’IWW Montréal 19/11/2014.

Au cours des derniers mois, différentes discussions ont eu lieu sur Facebook à propos de délégué-e-s de l’IWW qui auraient pris des décisions arbitraires, dépassant largement le cadre de leur mandat (par exemple en refusant à des étudiant-e-s le droit d’entrer dans le syndicat ou en faisant littéralement couler une campagne d’organisation). À de nombreuses reprises, il a ainsi été rappelé que les délégué-e-s ne sont que des «volontaires devant ramasser les cotisations». En tant que délégué qui a essayé de vivre chacun de ses mandats selon des standards des plus élevés, je trouve ces deux déclarations extrêmement troublantes. D’un coté, nous trouvons des délégué-e-s qui n’ont clairement pas reçu une formation correcte (voir une formation tout court) et qui n’ont pas lu leur manuel de délégué-e-s et de l’autre il semble qu’il y ait une incompréhension au sujet de la position de délégué-e par les membres de l’IWW. Read more

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Occupy Production – by Richard D. Wolff

Workers’ self-directed enterprises are a solution grounded in the histories of both capitalism and socialism. Establishing workers’ self-directed enterprises completes what past democratic revolutions began in moving societies beyond monarchies and autocracies. Democratizing production can finally take democracy beyond being merely an electoral ritual that facilitates rule by the 1% over the 99%. -RD Wolff


This article originally appeared in monthlyreview.org a while ago. It also appeared in the Occupy Harvard Crimson.

As the Occupy movement keeps developing, it seeks solutions for the economic and political dysfunctions it exposes and opposes. For many, the capitalist economic system itself is the basic problem. They want change to another system, but not to the traditional socialist alternative (e.g., USSR or China). That system too seems to require basic change.

The common solution these activists propose is to change both systems’ production arrangements from the ground up. Every enterprise should be democratized. Workers should occupy their enterprise by collectively functioning as its board of directors. That would abolish the capitalist exploitative system (employer versus employee) much as our historical predecessors abolished the parallel exploitative systems of slavery (master versus slave) and feudalism (lord versus serf).

In workers’ self-directed enterprises, those who do the work also design and direct it and dispose of its profits: no exploitation of workers by others. Workers participate equally in making all enterprise decisions. The old capitalist elite — the major corporate shareholders and the boards of directors they choose — would no longer decide what, how, and where to produce and how to use enterprise profits. Instead, workers — in partnership with residential communities interdependent with their enterprises — would make all those decisions democratically.

Only then could we avoid repeating yet again the capitalist cycle: (1) economic boom bursting into crisis, followed by (2) mass movements for social welfare reforms and economic regulations, followed by (3) capitalists using their profits to undo achieved reforms and regulations, followed by (1) again, the next capitalist boom, bust, and crisis. US capitalism since the crash of 1929 displays this 3-step cycle.

In democratized enterprises, the workers who most need and benefit from reforms would dispose of the profits of enterprise. No separate class of employers would exist and use enterprise profits to undo the reforms and regulations workers achieved. Quite the contrary, self-directing workers would pay taxes only if the state secures those reforms and regulations. Democratized enterprises would not permit the inequalities of income and wealth (and therefore of power and cultural access) now typical across the capitalist world.

Actually existing socialist systems, past and present, also need enterprise democratization. Those systems’ socialization of productive property plus central planning (versus capitalism’s private property and markets) left far too much unbalanced power centralized in the state. In addition, reforms (guaranteed employment and basic welfare, far less inequality of income and wealth, etc.) won by socialist revolutions proved insecure. Private enterprises and markets eventually returned and erased many of those reforms.

Traditional socialism’s problems flow also from its undemocratic organization of production. Workers in socialized state enterprises were not self-directed; they did not collectively decide what, how, and where to produce nor what to do with the profits. Instead, state officials decided what, how, and where to produce and how to dispose of profits. If socialist enterprises were democratized, the state would then depend for its revenue on collectively self-directed workers. That would institutionalize real, concrete control from below to balance state power from above.

Workers’ self-directed enterprises are a solution grounded in the histories of both capitalism and socialism. Establishing workers’ self-directed enterprises completes what past democratic revolutions began in moving societies beyond monarchies and autocracies. Democratizing production can finally take democracy beyond being merely an electoral ritual that facilitates rule by the 1% over the 99%.

Conference “UniRoyal factory: Direct Action and Worker Control” (with english translation)

[English Follows]
Évènement Facebook Event

We, the IWW Montreal, vous invitons à venir entendre et discuter avec
notre conférencier invité Simon Dumais lors de la soirée intitulée

Action Directe et contrôle ouvrier
le cas de l’usine UniRoyal/Servaas

le Jeudi le 20 octobre prochain à 19h
dans la salle A4.82A du cégep du Vieux Montréal.
Et c’est Gratuit.

Auteur d’une maitrise sur le sujet, Simon Dumais nous présentera ce combat qui aura amené des travailleurs à utiliser leur pouvoir sur le processus de production comme moyen d’action directe dans l’objectif d’obtenir un pouvoir de gestion croissante sur l’entreprise. Cette lutte qui aura durée cinq ans dans une usine de caoutchouc de la ville d’Anjou au cours des années 70 est selon nous une des pages d’histoire ouvrière les plus méconnue de la lutte de classe et du syndicalisme au Québec considérant l’intérêt qu’elle représente. Elle est pour nous un exemple épatant de la capacité de la classe ouvrière à contrôler de manière autonome l’organisation d’un lieu de travail dans le cadre d’une lutte qui va dans le sens du contrôle ouvrier, donc d’une économie socialiste contrôlée par et pour les travailleurs et les travailleuses. La présentation sera suivit d’une période de discussion. Il y aura une table de brochures, de livres et de T-shirts.

Pour en savoir plus sur le sujet de la soirée vous pouvez consulter notre article, et l’article de Simon Dumais paru dans la revue their old factory in the neighboring province.”:

improving their living conditions and, Simon, their old factory in the neighboring province.” : their old factory in the neighboring province.”, their old factory in the neighboring province.”, their old factory in the neighboring province.”, their old factory in the neighboring province.”, summer 1990, their old factory in the neighboring province.”.

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English whispered translation will be available.

October 19th
at 7pm
in Downtown Montreal
in room A4.82A ofCEGEP du Vieux Montreal

In the 70’s in Montreal, a rubber factory has been a five year long outstanding fight between the workers and the bosses. The workers used their control of the production line to use it as direct action in the mean to gain control over the management and the organization of the factory. Simon Dumais has studied this struggle at that time and is willing to present it today to new generation of revolutionary unionists.

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self-managing occupation of France

Tiré du Blog occupants


147 salariés de l’entreprise Philips EGP de Dreux (Eure-et-Loir) ont « pris le contrôle de production » de leur usine afin de « dénoncer la fermeture programmée de site en janvier par la direction », a-t-on appris jeudi de sources syndicales.

«Nous avons pris le contrôle de l’entreprise depuis deux jours sous forme de SCOP (Société Coopérative de Production) sous le contrôle des ouvriers. Nous voulons ainsi montrer que le site de Dreux est viable économiquement» , a déclaré à l’AFP, Manuel Georget, délégué CGT. «Sur les 217 salariés restant, toujours en attente de leur lettre de licenciement, 147 ouvriers, frames, ingénieurs etc. ont accepté de travailler en autogestion, lors d’une assemblée générale, et ainsi montrer que l’usine est rentable, si l’on n’engraisse pas financièrement les actionnaires», a indiqué M. Georget.

Read more